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Dallas man executed for killing daughters while mom listened

HUNTSVILLE, Texas- A former Dallas accountant condemned for fatally shooting his two young daughters while their mom listened helplessly on the phone was put to death Thursday night in Texas.

John David Battaglia received lethal injection for the May 2001 killings of his 9-year-old daughter, Faith, and her 6-year-old sister, Liberty. Battaglia and his wife had separated and the girls were killed at his Dallas apartment during a scheduled visit.

Battaglia’s execution was the nation’s third this year, all in Texas. The penalty was carried out after the U.S. Supreme court repudiated appeals from his lawyers to review his occurrence, arguing the 62 -year-old was delusional and mentally incompetent for execution.

Battaglia smiled as the mother of his slain children, Mary Jean Pearle, and other witness to his lethal injection walked into the death chamber viewing area.

Asked by the warden if he had a final declaration, the inmate replied: “No, ” then changed his mind.

Battaglia then closed his eyes and looked directly up. A few seconds later he opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Am I still alive? ” he asked.

The powerful sedative pentobarbital began to take effect. “Oh, I feel it, ” he said. He gasped twice and was beginning to snore. Within a few more seconds, all motion stopped.

The time of death: 9:40 p.m. CST — 22 minutes after the lethal dosage began.

Pearle turned away from an execution-viewing window after Battaglia stopped exhaling and strolled to the back of the witness area.

“I’ve assured enough of him, ” she said before returning minutes later to watch as a physician analyse Battaglia and pronounced him dead. Pearle declined to be interviewed afterward.

Earlier in the working day, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal that argued a lower tribunal improperly rejected Battaglia’s lawyers fund to hire an expert to further examine legal claims of his mental competency.

The Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners can be executed if they’re aware the death penalty must therefore be carried out and have a rational understanding of why they’re facing that punishment. Attorneys for Battaglia argued he didn’t have that understanding and that the state’s highest court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, misapplied the Supreme Court’s guidance when it ruled that Battaglia was competent.

State lawyers said the Texas tribunals ensured proper legal standards were followed and that Battaglia had been provided expert help and a court hearing in accordance with Supreme Court precedents.

Another unsuccessful appeal challenged the efficiency of the pentobarbital Texas employs as its execution medication. Attorneys contended the state’s furnish was outdated and Battaglia was at risk for unconstitutionally cruel punishment.

A state judge and the nation appeals court described Battaglia as very intelligent, competent , not mentally ill and faking mental illness to avoid execution.

Testimony at a hearing depicted Battaglia employed the prison library to research capital example rulings on mental competence and discussed with his father during telephone calls from jail the “chess game” of avoiding executing. State Judge Robert Burns, who found him competent, said Battaglia’s intelligence and education — he had a master’s degree — presented he had the “motive and intellectual capability to maintain a deliberate ploy or ruse to avoid his execution.”

According to prosecutors, Battaglia became enraged that Pearle, his estranged wife , apprise police about his harassment of her and he used the visit with their daughters to act on his anger. Pearle, who had gone to dinner, returned a bellow from one of her daughters and hear Faith pleading with her parent, who set the call on speakerphone.

“No, daddy, please don’t, don’t do it! ” Faith begged.

Pearle screamed into the phone for the children to run, then heard gunshots.

At the time of the killings, Battaglia was on probation for a Christmas 1999 attack on Pearle. His profanity-laced Christmas greeting to Pearle was an apparent reference to that.

Faith was shot three times, Liberty five. Hour later, Battaglia was apprehended outside at a tattoo store where he had two large red roses inked on his left arm to commemorate his daughters. It took four officers to subdue him. A fully loaded revolver was found in his truck and more than a dozen handguns were recovered from his apartment.

Battaglia told The Dallas Morning News in 2014 his daughters were his “best little friends” and that he had photos of them displayed in his prison cell.

“I don’t feel like I killed them, ” he said. “I am a little bit in the blank about what happened.”